Devika Nhendanmadath
Product Leader / AI-Powered, Data-First Platforms
Versatile product leader blending engineering acumen and customer empathy to build AI-powered platforms across EdTech, public safety, and B2B commerce, turning insights into double-digit growth.
Engineering roots, customer instincts, metrics that move.
I have spent 4+ years orchestrating cross-functional squads to deliver AI-powered, data-first platforms, from an AI CRM for B2B commerce to lifecycle growth engines reaching 100,000+ learners. My work lives at the intersection of experiment-led roadmaps, lifecycle growth loops, and analytics that turn signals into revenue.
A Computer Science degree keeps me fluent with the teams I build alongside, and a STEM Master's in Project Management keeps delivery disciplined at scale.
Products shipped, teams led, numbers changed.
Product Support Specialist
Afference, Boulder, USA
- Act as voice of the customer for a 0 to 1 neural haptic wearable, running product demos and troubleshooting to guide early users and feeding firsthand insights back to product and engineering.
- Lead customer discovery through user interviews and market research, translating pain points into user stories and product requirements that inform roadmap prioritization.
- Own user acceptance testing (UAT) for the demo app, validating features against requirements and documenting defects to close the loop with engineering.
- Built the end to end support lifecycle (intake, triage, escalation, resolution), partnering cross functionally to drive continuous product improvement.
Assistant Program Manager
Better Direct, Phoenix, USA
- Directed the redesign and relaunch of the corporate website with an integrated AI chatbot handling 200+ customer interactions, lifting qualified leads 20% within a month.
- Led design and rollout of a proprietary AI-powered CRM platform, cutting manual sales effort by 40% and quote turnaround by 30% via automated validation and approvals.
- Shipped an insights dashboard surfacing top-performing product lines and underperforming regions to focus sales strategy.
- Built a gamification dashboard for contract-based sales achievements, raising incentive program participation 25%.
Product Manager Co-op
Municipal Police Training Committee (MPTC), Boston, USA
- Spearheaded digital transformation with an Airtable-based procurement requisition system optimizing $1M+ in transactions.
- Used MySQL for advanced analysis and reporting, delivering insights that supported budget planning and fiscal oversight.
Associate Product Manager
Great Learning, Bengaluru, India
- Integrated Drift's AI chatbot across web, iOS, and Android for 100,000+ users, driving 25% higher course engagement and 15% higher conversions.
- Ran an experimentation program (A/B testing, statistical evaluation, feedback loops) that lifted app store rating to 4.8 and passed 100,000 downloads.
- Led 200+ user interviews, personas, and journey mapping that cut user drop-off 30%.
- Designed a lifecycle engine with SendGrid and behavioral analytics: +20% engagement, 10% lower churn.
- Executed a Mixpanel and Hotjar driven GTM strategy improving sales performance 32% and generating $2M in new revenue in eight months.
Product Manager Intern
Unacademy, Bengaluru, India
- Defined GTM strategies for online and offline campaigns using Google Analytics and Salesforce, increasing sales 30%.
- Built competitive intelligence and performance measurement frameworks guiding product investment decisions.
Lok&Key, a roommate and room-rental marketplace
Product StrategyRoadmapWeb Product Design
Overview
Lok&Key is a two-sided marketplace connecting people searching for a room, the Hunters, with people renting one out, the Listers. The goal is to make finding a compatible living situation feel less like scrolling endless listings and more like being matched with the right place and the right person to live with.
I led the product definition: turning a rough idea and a couple of reference products into a phased, buildable roadmap, a defined data model, and a plan for the web experience.
The problem
Finding a room or a roommate online is fragmented and low-trust. Existing platforms solve one half of the equation: they list rooms without any sense of whether you would get along with the people there, or they focus on people without surfacing real inventory. Renters waste time on incompatible listings and listers field messages from people who were never a fit. The opportunity is a marketplace where compatibility and trust are first-class features, not afterthoughts.
My role
- Competitive teardown of two reference products in the space
- A three-phase product roadmap with prioritized features (Must, Should, Nice-to-have)
- The core data model for the platform
- The plan for the web product and its key user flows
Process
Competitive analysis
Studied two reference products in adjacent parts of the market to map what existed, where the gaps were, and which mechanics such as referral loops were worth adapting.
Defining the two-sided model
Framed the product around two personas, Hunters and Listers, and designed the loop that connects them: discovery, messaging, saved listings, decision.
Roadmap and prioritization
Sequenced everything into three phases tied to product maturity, validate then differentiate then scale, so the build stays lean early.
Data model
Defined the underlying schema so engineering had a concrete foundation to build against.
The core loop
Hunters browse and search listings, message Listers directly through in-app threads, and save listings to compare side by side. Listers create and manage listings and handle inbound interest from a single inbox. A dashboard gives each side a home base: Hunters track saved and messaged listings, Listers see active listings, their inbox, and visitor stats.
Roadmap at a glance
Phase 1
Foundation (MVP)
- Listing creation and search
- Hunter to Lister messaging threads
- Saved listings with side-by-side comparison
- Role-specific dashboards
- Intentionally minimal notifications: email plus an in-app badge count
Phase 2
Growth (Trust & Differentiation)
- Lifestyle compatibility score from a short quiz on sleep, cleanliness, pets, guests, and noise
- Two-sided reviews and ratings for Hunters and Listers
- Listing boost, the first revenue lever
- Neighborhood context: commute times, transit, walkability
- SEO and social sharing to turn every listing into a growth surface
Phase 3
Scale (Monetization & Platform)
- Premium tiers: Hunter Pro and Lister Pro
- AI powered For You matching on behavior, saved searches, and lifestyle fit
- Native mobile app after web product-market fit
- Background check integration as a trust differentiator
- Digital lease signing and in-app rent payments
Data model
The platform was structured around six core entities, enough to power the full MVP loop while leaving room for the trust and monetization layers to build on top.
Design principles
Start lean, sequence by maturity
Every phase maps to a stage of validation, so effort is never spent ahead of proof.
Trust is the product
Compatibility scoring, reviews, and background checks are the reason to choose Lok&Key over a classifieds board.
Both sides matter
Every feature was pressure-tested against the needs of both Hunters and Listers to keep the marketplace balanced.
Outcome
The engagement produced a clear, prioritized roadmap and a defined product foundation that took Lok&Key from concept to a buildable plan, with a sequenced feature set, a data model ready for engineering, and a differentiation strategy centered on trust and compatibility.
Role: Product Strategy & Design. Deliverables: Competitive analysis, phased product roadmap, data model, web product plan.
What music taught me about building products.
When I am not shipping features, I am listening, learning, and getting lost in music. It is more than a hobby, it is shaped how I think about rhythm, patience, and putting in the reps until something clicks.
Hardworking
Practice over talent. Great tracks and great products come from showing up every day, refining the details until they sing.
Resilient
Every song has a bridge, the hard part before the payoff. I have learned to push through the messy middle instead of skipping to the chorus.
Attuned to the audience
Music is empathy at scale. Reading a room is the same muscle as reading a user, you build for how people actually feel, not what a spec says.
Composed under pressure
Improv only looks effortless because of the hours behind it. I stay calm when the tempo picks up and adapt in real time.
Now Playing
A little bit of everything
On repeat, on shuffle, on discovery
The toolkit behind the outcomes.
Product & Strategy
Technical Tools
Business Operations
Collaboration
Education
M.S. Project Management (STEM)
Northeastern University, Jan 2023 to Mar 2025
Education
B.E. Computer Science & Engineering
Amrita University, Jul 2015 to Jun 2019
Let's build something that moves the metric.
Always happy to talk product strategy, AI platforms, or growth experimentation.